I’d love to hear from you

Do you have Facebook cover photo envy? Have you used PicMonkey before?

Don't forget to share your updated cover photo with us! Leave your Facebook page URL in the comments so we can check it out (& give it a like!). Let me know if you enjoyed this video tutorial, and please ask any questions you might have. (I read & respond to every single one.)

If you found this video tutorial useful, I'd love if you shared it with a fellow Facebook page owner who might want to update their own cover photo! And please share it on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ using the buttons right below : )

>> In this free training you'll learn:

The number one mistake people make when it comes to their social media content

How to generate a month’s worth of content in a few short hours(using the same system I use AND teach my private clients)

What works (& what doesn’t) on Facebook and Twitter (with TONS of real examples)

How to automate this piece of your social media presence so it works hard getting you noticed while you’re busy doing other stuff

Jackie! As a communication specialist I love your tutorial on many levels. First off, I needed the information but other reasons are: you spoke clearly, concisely and you gave GREAT information. Thank you! The perfect information at the perfect time for me.

Hi Jackie!
Thank you sooo much for this video! It really helped me a lot and I will come back soon. Still not perfect but here is what I created so far: https://www.facebook.com/jovegpetcare
I find it hard to chose what to do because there are so many options. :)

Quick suggestion: As I advised Shannon above, definitely fill in that cover photo’s description field so that when people click through they see a little blurb about your pet care line and a link to more info on your website. An example right at the bottom of this post: https://jackiejohnstone.com/2013/07/facebook-cover-photo-rules-update/ (where it says BONUS TIP).

Since it’s a Facebook cover photo, when someone clicks on it they’ll get the usual Facebook photo-viewing lightbox popping up. So use that photo description field to put more info & the relevant URL. You can put more than one link in the photo description but be wary, if you put in too many calls-to-action, people tend to get confused. I would try to stick to one main action (& URL) you want people to do/click. (See an example right at the bottom of this post: https://jackiejohnstone.com/2013/07/facebook-cover-photo-rules-update/ –where it says BONUS TIP.) Does that help?

I don’t personally think there is a hard & fast rule. Obviously if you are using your cover photo to promote a specific product or program, you’ll want to keep it current, but otherwise it’s really up to you. Many of your fans (probably the majority) interact with your posts solely through their news feed, which means don’t see your cover photo at all (for the moment in any case – Facebook is currently testing & tweaking a new version of the Facebook news feed layout that makes cover photos more prominent) — it’s mainly new fans that land on your page that will see your cover, so that’s a good thing to keep in mind!

Some potential tactics I’ve seen work:

1) Seasonal cover changes (if that resonates for your biz)
2) A standard branded cover photo with evergreen info (like what you do & your website) that goes up whenever you don’t have a offer-specific image running
3) Fan-centered cover photos that change every week/month to spotlight a new testimonial, fan-submitted photos/art, etc.

This is the greatest tutorial I have seen! I am in the process of getting our facebook page up and running. It has been challenging though because I have had a hard time relating all of these tactics to my real estate business facebook page. This is currently what we have now and I am trying to tweek it so that it stands out. Any tips you have would be greatly appreciated.

That link isn’t working for me! Double-check it and try again – I’d love to take a peek at your page. And, what exactly is tripping you up when it comes to applying tactics to your real estate page? I’m happy to help if I can! (And it might make a great blog post : )

Is it possible the page isn’t published (made public) yet? You’ll see a little “This page has not been published” notice at the top of your page under ‘Admin Panel’ if this is the case. I’m still not seeing anything when I click that URL (it just redirects me to my home feed) and I’m not having any luck with Facebook search (although that’s not saying much because I find their search pretty useless in general) : ( Check the page’s published status and if that’s not the answer, let me know and we’ll jump on email and troubleshoot this together!

I have checked and it is published. I have gotten a few new likes recently so I would think it would have to be published. I also checked under my setting and it says the page address ishttp://www.facebook.com/HillHarborGroup

Could we chat on email? Do I need to sign up for a service? I would love your insight as to how I can really utilize FB to generate more leads. How to use facebooks offers for our real estate. It is hard to do an offer because in real estate you can’t really offer anything tangible. Please HELP! :)

Nice work, Chris! I love your calls-to-action to Like & Click for more info + the link in your photo description. Let us know how it works out for you! (Keep an eye on your analytics to see if you get more traffic from Facebook to that landing page for example.)

So you can’t actually add a clickable link. But the whole photo itself is clickable and if someone clicks, it’ll pop up in that photo viewing ‘lightbox’ — use the photo’s ‘description’ field to put in more info on your free gift and the link or instructions on how they can get it! Some examples here: https://jackiejohnstone.com/2013/07/facebook-cover-photo-rules-update/

Hi and thanks for the helpful tutorial! I have a problem though. Text and cutouts that I use in Pic Monkey looks great in the program but when I upload it to FB it has a halo and looks really bad. I am saving on the highest resolution. Any suggestions for that? Thanks.

I know what you mean and apparently it’s a problem with Facebook’s image compression (they compress images so they don’t take up too much space or time to load) — So maybe don’t save them on the highest resolution? Also I’d try saving them as .png instead of .jpg, I’ve found this can help. PicMonkey says this is the worst when the words are on a solid coloured background so keep that in mind as well when creating images especially for Facebook.

Hey Jackie!
THANK YOU for such a great, step-by-step tutorial! Very helpful. My only question is: I have a thin, colored overlay across the bottom like you do in the video. But when I view my cover from someone else’s account, their ‘friend’ and ‘message’ buttons obscure the text along the bottom of my cover. If I make the over lay thicker and move the text up (to sit above the viewer’s buttons) then the text looks out of balance when someone clicks on it to view. Does that matter? Is there a way around it or should I 86 the overlay and text along the bottom of the cover?
Thanks so much for your expertise!

If you are talking about the ‘Friend’ and ‘Message’ buttons, I assume you are creating a cover photo for your personal profile? Because on a Business Page, you wouldn’t have any button overlaying the image. SO, that being said, I’d definitely try to work around the button positions — if you don’t like the look of making the overlay thicker and floating the words higher up then what about flipping it and putting the overlay + text along the top? Since there is no ‘like’ button to drive people towards on your personal profile, this might work.

I’d be happy to take a look at what you’ve got if you want some more ideas! Just drop me an email or FB msg : )

I have one question, though, I need to make more spacing between bottom of pics and green banner.I’m not seeing how to go back and do that…if it is not too much trouble can you give me the steps to go back and do so? MUCH appreciated – Michelle A. in New Jersey